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23 March 2014

Such A Spot Was Scotland

The mind which merely scans the boundaries, to learn the area of a nation, and studies its physical geography, its climate and its soil, to learn its character, would never find itself competent to measure that
nation's greatness. [Source]

"What constitutes a state ?

Not high-raised battlement, or labored mound,

Thick wall, or moated gate,

Not cities fair, with spires and turrets crowned,

No; men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued,

In forest, brake or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ;

Men who their duties know,

Know, too, their rights, and knowing dare maintain,

Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain."

"...other spots, rugged and barren, hard of access, and rewarding sparingly the hand of toil, have become gardens of intellect, and produced men born to rule, born to do and dare, born to build up a state at home, in spite of adversity, in spite of the terrors and devastations of centuries of war and struggle for statehood and liberty...".